E2v, a provider of high-performance imaging solutions, has signed a contract worth €2.8 million with space technology company Astrium.
E2v will supply imaging sensors to equip the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel 4 Ultraviolet Visible Near-infrared (UVN) instrument, which will gather data on the quality of the Earth’s atmosphere and its chemical composition from geostationary orbit.
Sentinel 4 is part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, a joint undertaking of the European Commission and the European Space Agency. It will deliver environmental and security services in Europe.
ESA is responsible for the Space component of GMES, of which the five families of Sentinel missions are key components. Within this programme, Sentinel 4 will be carried into orbit onboard the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) geostationary satellite, and enable seamless observations of Europe and North Africa to be taken hourly.
Hans Faulks, general manager for high-performances imaging, said: 'E2v is delighted to sign this contract with Astrium. It demonstrates how e2v’s imaging technology for Earth observation applications is well recognised and adds to more than 100 Earth observation programmes running with our high-performance imaging sensors.'
